The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for towing large game, preferably deer, out of inaccessible areas after they have been harvested.
Hunters often travel by foot into wilderness areas to hunt big game such as deer, antelope, moose, elk, sheep, goats, and the like. When the animals have been killed, there is often a need to pull the animals out of these wilderness areas because these areas are often inaccessible to vehicles, either because of the terrain, or because of heavy forrestation. In such situations, the game is generally dressed out, or eviscerated, in the field, and then towed to a road where a vehicle may be brought in order to transport the carcass out of the area. Transporting the game to the road, however, after it is killed and dressed out, may be a major undertaking.
Because of the size and weight of the game which is often hunted, and the rugged terrain over which it may be necessary to tow the game, a single person may find it extremely difficult to tow an animal along the ground. Furthermore, the animal will become dirty, battered, and torn as it is towed along. Rocks and other rough objects may tear or otherwise damage the skin.
This problem is well-known to hunters who frequent wilderness areas. The prior art discloses many methods of towing animals out of wilderness areas. Wampler (U.S. Pat. No. 2,592,771) discloses a towing harness for towing large game over the ground. Bauman (U.S. Pat. No. 3,996,228) discloses another towing harness for towing large game which also has general utility for pulling a sled, wagon or the like. Johnson (U.S. Pat. No. 3,038,644) discloses a simplified shoulder harness for towing a heavy game carcass, and Jehrke (U.S. Pat. No. 3,077,292) discloses yet another harness for dragging heavy loads, preferably game, such as deer or the like.
Keyser (U.S. Pat. No. 4,238,068) discloses a substantially flat sheet-like sled structure which can receive and support an animal carcass. The carcass may be tied into the somewhat flexible sled structure using a rope which passes through holes in the edges of the sled, thereby creating a zig-zag pattern around the animal carcass. Once the animal is tied into the sled, the sled structure supporting the carcass may be towed.
Alley et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,335,891) disclose a sled made out of a thin plastic sheet upon which an animal can be secured with straps. A harness may then be attached to the sled and the animal can then be transported by pulling the sled along the ground.
Both of the structures disclosed by Keyser and Alley et al. allow hunters to secure the carcass of a dead animal into the structure so that the carcass may be transported on the structure. However, these sled structures are rather large and add to the bulk which must be carried into hunting areas by the hunters. Even the somewhat flexible sled structure disclosed by Keyser will be difficult to carry in in spite of the fact that it may be rolled up into a cylindrical package having a length equal to the width of the sled structure. Also, because each of the semi-flexible sled structures disclosed by Keyser and Alley et al. possess a degree of rigidity, they are not easily packed among other material during preparation for a hunting trip. Instead each sled must be treated as an individual item, about which other items must be packed. Furthermore, because of this rigidity the sled structures do not slide easily around, over, or through immovable or hard to move objects such as trees, rocks, ridges, or the like which are found in rough wilderness terrain, because the rigidity inherent in these structures requires more than just the area of the structure which is impacted to move in response to the impact of an immovable object. The rigidity requires the entire structure to change position when a single portion of the structure must change position to get around or over such an object. This lack of complete flexibility can make it very difficult to tow the sled through areas crowded with immovable objects.
It will be appreciated from the foregoing that the prior art devices present problems which are in need of solutions. The present invention provides solutions for these and other problems.